The Keeping Of The Birds
by Flower of the Desert
Summary: Rashelly and Kira are two girls sought after by the Akatasuki, but why? The leader tells Sasori and Deidara nothing and sends them to retrieve the young women. Slightly AU. DeiOC SasoOC
1. A little bit of thinking

**Rashelly, you can stop encouraging, **_**kickingmeintheass**_**, to post this now. As a note, I wrote this for one of my bestest friends, Rashelly, and as such she is a character in it. My character; because she said I should have one too; is 'Kira'. Oh, and I don't own any respective anime or manga except San Bun, but that's completely retarded and is something I did in fifth grade. Storyline is slightly AU **

* * *

_Lean close and listen well _

_For I have got a tale to tell _

_But first my dear _

_Listen here _

_Tell me, have you heard the tale _

_Of she-robin and she-nightingale? _

_Or the men who took them home? _

_Kept locked up, yet free to roam? _

_Apparently you have not _

_And a gold-spun tale I've got _

_With open ears and hearts abound _

_Grab a seat and gather round _

_This tale is spun with pure-gold thread _

_Remember it when you rest your head _

_So hush now, let my voice be heard _

_And I will tell the tale of The Keeping Of The Birds _

_Flower of the Desert _

* * *

"You ready, un?" Deidara of Akatsuki asked his partner Sasori. Sasori nodded and looked away.

_I swear, a brick wall has more personality than this guy. I would have better luck getting an answer from a brick wall as well. _Deidara thought, observing Sasori.

"Kira?" Sasori asked, looking at a small yellow card with the name 'Kira' scrawled across the front. Deidara looked at him surprised.

"I thought you said-" Deidara began.

"I was merely asking you if you were going to get that girl. I am obtaining Rashelly." Sasori said without blinking. _That's the most I've said in a long time. _He noted, crouching down.

"Whatever, un." Deidara said, slightly annoyed at his partner's cold façade. _At least_, he thought, putting clay into his palm-mouths, _Kira will be more fun._

_Soon. _Thought Sasori, shifting his weight to his left foot, _I will have a living puppet. _This brought a rare smile to Sasori's lips as he prepped himself for obtaining the girl.

The Akatsuki's leader had, for a reason unknown to them, wanted to bring two new members into their ranks. Two **women** for that matter! Unheard of! But none-the-less Sasori and Deidara 'volunteered' to obtain the two young women and show them the ropes of being S-class criminals.

However, for Sasori the word 'volunteered' didn't quite express what had gotten him into his current position on top of a building in his least favorite place, Sunnakagure.

And he had promised himself he'd never come back. Oh well, to late for that now. And the fact that a pink haired fifteen year old almost killed him (He only **looked **dead, he's a puppet after all) the last time he was here didn't make him fancy the place any more than he already did.

Getting your ass kicked by a fifteen year old girl and your **grandmother** does that to a person, no matter how little of them is still human. He liked finally being hugged by his parents though.

Sure. The lure of having a living puppet added to his arsenal made him object a **tiny** bit less, but Deidara was the one who had readily jumped at retrieving the women.

Could he even call them women? They were only eighteen. Now, even for a hardened S-class criminal, breaking into a **female** **teenager's **house made him feel like a pedophile. But only slightly. He wasn't Akasuna no Sasori for nothing.

"What are you waiting for?" Sasori asked his partner irritably. He wanted to get his living puppet soon. Deidara glared at Sasori.

"You, un." Deidara snapped. It wasn't his fault that Sasori disliked flying so much that he had to have a separate bird to fly on. One that could be controlled with chakra strings no less. As Deidara finished sculpting the second bird he began to wish he hadn't pushed Tobi into Zetsu upon Tobi volunteering to go with him. But only slightly. That so called "good boy" was really starting to piss him off.

And he was running out of causes of death.

"There, un." Deidara said, making the birds flight ready sized. Sasori grunted in approval, attaching chakra strings to his bird and sitting on its back.

Deidara climbed onto his and wordlessly took off toward the most well-kept looking house in that district of Sunna, and flew straight by it.

No, the home that both Deidara and Sasori were looking for was not the most well-kept, nor the most run down. This home housed the two young women they were looking for, and this is where our story truly begins.

* * *

Kira clambered out of her bed, yawning, and threw open her window. It was not uncommon for her to sleep only a few hours of the night, only to wake up in the middle of it. Rashelly, Kira's niece, was not likewise afflicted. In fact, Rashelly often cast a sleeping genjutsu on herself so that Kira couldn't wake her up in the middle of the night, purely to wach her drift back into sleep.

The wind outside her window shifted almost imperceptibly, and Kira adjusted the straps of her white sports bra nervously. She could feel on the wind that something was coming. Kira contemplated waking Rashelly, but that would probably result on the latter getting inconceivably pissed, resulting in Kira's immediate discomfort.

Kira observed the stars for a moment, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. She had always liked Sunnakagure's nighttime scene. Pulling a small wooden stool to the window sill she sat and looked out at the calmly sleeping village.

* * *

On the other side of the house on certain Akasuna no Sasori had found his prize. He calmly opened the window without so much as a click and looked at the slumbering raven haired girl. He shook off the feeling of another presence in the room and picked up the teen, Rashelly, bridal style and carried her out of the window.

He wondered for an instant, why one of the two girls currently being sought after by the Akatsuki would sleep through being captured and taken from her place of residence. He physically shrugged, a new thing for him, and flew the bird to the top of the home he had just exited.

This was his favorite part of a kidnap. The part where he wasn't rushed, and could observe his hostage while Deidara got his. Of course, he **could** assist Deidara in getting his hostage, Kira, but what fun would that be. Yes, Sasori also wanted to get the hell off of the bird and back to the Akatsuki hideout, but he wanted to find out some things about this girl before he handed her over to the Leader.

* * *

Deidara "stealthily" made his way to the window, if you call breaking several clay pots with a giant clay bird stealthy. He got level with the window, meaning that his feet were at the proper height to walk through the window, had the window been taller. He heard a muffled squeak and bent down to look through the window.

He was soon nose to nose with a blonde haired girl, who was covering her mouth with one hand. Deidara's eyes gleamed. This was Kira, and it was the perfect situation.

In a flash, Kira was on the bird with Deidara, his hand now covering her mouth. Deidara was seated, Kira between his knees to prevent her escape.

"I want you to be very quiet now, un." Deidara said, teasingly close to the shell of the eighteen year olds ear. Kira shivered, his breath was warm on her ear in the cool night.

Deidara chuckled, having achieved the desired effect on the girl, who, for the record, was his age. He chuckled again as a surprised squeak came from his charge. She had figured out who he was.

* * *

Sasori suppressed a groan, a **very** new thing for him. He had just spotted Deidara on the other bird flying toward him with Kira in between his legs. He was tempted to fly out to meet him, purely for the joy of berating him to Kingdom Come, wherever that was. But he resisted that temptation. He could berate and pester Deidara in his own manner all the way back to the Hideout.

And he was ok with that.

Sasori was slightly startled when his charge, Rashelly, woke up. But he had expected that she would wake. It was the manner in which she did so that startled him.

"Hello." Rashelly said, opening her eyes to the man looking down at her. A fleeting look of amusement mixed with mild surprise danced on his face as he looked at her.

"Akasuna no Sasori I presume?" She asked, sticking out a hand. Sasori shook it uncertainly. "I also presume that my aunt and I are being kidnapped and taken to the Akatsuki Hideout?" She asked her kidnapper, unfazed that she was speaking to an S-class criminal that could snap her neck in an instant.

"You're bright." Sasori said with a nod. Clouded amusement filled her eyes.

"Would I be correct in saying that you know very little about my bloodline, let alone my aunt's?" she asked, mischief behind each syllable she uttered. Sasori was temporarily stunned.

"Maybe too bright for your own good." Sasori said, regaining his composure as Deidara flew next to the bird Rashelly and Sasori shared and welding them together with a wave of his hand.

"Auntie!" Rashelly exclaimed, leaping to her aunt's side. They exchanged a knowing glance before Kira looked over to the redhead.

"Hi." She said, sticking out her hand. Sasori eyed it but did not extend his hand.

Kira was immediately struck with the notion that he was _immensely_ similar to a brick wall. Just to be sure he wasn't, she stood up and walked in front of him. She appeared to study him for a moment.

Sasori was blissfully ignorant to what was going on, having decided to tune out Kira just like he did Deidara. So when she suddenly poked him hard in the chest he was taken completely off guard.

To Kira's amusement, Deidara's shock, and Rashelly's boredom (she wasn't really paying attention) Sasori stumbled backwards slightly.

"Oomph." Sasori uttered in surprise, loosing his footing and backing up a few paces. Kira laughed, much to his annoyance, and soon found chakra strings encircling her neck.

"Sasori-danna!" Deidara exclaimed, severing the strings with the ease of someone who had been caught up in them himself. Sasori looked at the clay user with blank eyes, the same expression that so irked him daily.

"Tell your charge," Sasori uttered slowly, choosing his words as if his life depended on it "That should she attempt something like that again, she will find an excruciating recovery process ahead of her."

Rashelly smiled. Time to explain their bloodline.

* * *

**Weeeell, didn't turn out the crappy way I half expected it to, so I'm happy. Review please. **


	2. Glimpses of the past

**Sup peoples. I would like to thank my reviewers and tell LostMemories414 that he's screwed. Ha-ha. So, let's get this thing started! I don't own Naruto, why would I be writing this if I did? Imouto means little sister. Onee-chan means older sister. **

* * *

Rashelly looked at her aunt, sending her the message that she was going to explain their bloodline now. Kira nodded. 

"I'm sleepy, and though I would **so **like to take you up on your offer," she paused, glancing at the red-head "I need my rest. Can I use you as a pillow?" She asked Deidara.

"You get straight to the point." Deidara remarked, nodding. Kira shrugged.

"I'm not really one for beating around the bush."

"Night Auntie." Rashelly whispered. Kira leaned back onto Deidara's chest and fell asleep.

Rashelly sighed deeply. "Well, I think you might want to get comfortable, this explanation is going to take a while." Rashelly told the men, sitting at her Aunt's side.

"Your bloodline?" Sasori grunted, still put out from being caught off guard. Rashelly nodded. Sasori sat down and folded his hands in his lap.

"Well, it goes like this…

_-Flashback-_

"_Mother!" A twenty-six year old woman called, black hair flowing around her shoulders, as she leaned on the doorway of a large Compound. A woman with equally black hair walked out to meet her. _

"_Yes child?" She asked, in her early fifties. The first woman swelled with pride, a large smile filling her face. _

"_Mom, I'm pregnant!" She exclaimed, hugging the older woman. _

_Her mother hugged back, tears welling in her eyes. "Oh, oh Akana. I'm so happy!" She said, stroking her daughter Akana's hair. She pulled back from her daughter and sighed. _

"_What's wrong mother?" Akana asked hurriedly, worried for her mother's health. Her mother, Alaakume, turned from Akana, feeling shameful._

"_I fear," Alaakume paused, coughing suddenly "I fear I too am with child." _

_Akana's face darkened. "Mother," she said reproachfully "are you positive I am to be an older sister?" _

_Alaakume nodded, her daughter engulfing her in a deep hug. _

"_We'll work through this." Alana said soothingly "Both of us."_

_-End Flashback-_

"You see, in my family, after the head of the house, my grandmother Alaakume, produced and heir to the family, my mother Akana, she was forbidden to have anymore children, on the off chance that it would be female." Rashelly paused and surveyed the faces of her company "This was because way back when the clan was started, discovered rather, it was said that the second daughter of the head-of-house would be born on the same day that the head-of-house's granddaughter was born.

"This was a bad thing because it would cause chaos inside the clan, and it was said that the girls would become the cause of the destruction of the clan. In other words, Kira shouldn't have been born. At least, that's what my mother always said. She never directly told me that I was in any way, or would be in any way, responsible for the fall of the clan. Ever. She always put the blame on her imouto Kira. And she never put the blame on her parents.

"You can imagine that because of the 'prophecy' we were never really popular with the other kids in our clan, our **family**. Disturbing, but true. Well, maybe not disturbing for you two. Never mind." Rashelly muttered, shaking her head.

"Go on." Deidara prompted, looking at the sleeping blonde girl leaning against him. Rashelly nodded and took another deep breath.

"Obviously Kira and I were born despite the threat to our clan. And for a few years, everything was fine. Then the inner-clan civil war started." Rashelly raised a hand to her eye and laughed dryly. Her visible brown eye flashed in anger. "They were idiots.

"The whole dispute was over which of us would be the head of clan when Akana died. We could have cared less. Alaakume was alive, Akana was alive, we didn't see the point in fighting over who would lead the clan after two strong and healthy women passed away. We figured that one of us would only have to start leading the clan when we were fifty. Well, the rest of our family didn't feel that way…

_-Flashback-_

"_We cannot allow Kira to become the head-of-clan!" An elderly man yelled, slamming his hand onto a long oak table. _

"_Nonsense." Another elderly woman said calmly. "She was born before Rashelly, and is the closest to Alaakume-sama." _

"_That's not what I meant!" He raged "She shouldn't be allowed to live to be even the next in line to be the head-of-clan!"_

_Alaakume pinched the bridge of her nose throughout the exchange. "ENOUGH!" She roared. "I will __**not**__ allow talk of that nature! Salbaba, you of all people should know this!" _

_The elderly man, Salbaba, sank low into his chair. _

"_Our discussion should be back with the matter at hand, and if you cannot keep your opinions to yourself, you are welcome to leave." Alaakume told Salbaba coldly. _

_At the door Rashelly turned to look at Kira. "Let's go now." Kira said angrily, fists balled through the cloth of her red kimono. Rashelly nodded, wide-eyed. _

_Her purple kimono swished around her feet as she followed her aunt away from the meeting hall._

_-End Flashback-_

"We were four when we found out that half of our clan wanted us dead." Rashelly told Sasori, his face as unexpressive as ever. "We were five when the desire of that half almost came true."

Rashelly's eyes were hard, her expression drastically different from the one she had adorned only moments before.

_-Flashback- _

"_Mommy, Mommy!?" A five year old Rashelly called desperately into the night. Akana rushed towards her, the hem of her nightgown bloodstained. _

"_Oh honey, are you alright?" She said quietly, picking the five year old up and dashing into the cover of a grove of oak trees. Rashelly nodded timidly. _

"_What's going on Mommy?" She asked, whispering like her mother. Akana gave her a look Rashelly could only describe as pity. "Where's Auntie Mommy?" She asked, jumping as she heard and explosion. "Mommy?" _

_But Akana didn't respond. She only smiled in a sad half kind of way as the tell-tale crackling of a fire began to be heard. _

"_N-no! No! NO!" Rashelly said, shaking her head and dashing away from her mother and towards the building where she and Kira shared a room. Smoke was pouring from the windows on ether side of the room. "Auntie!" Rashelly screamed franticly "AUNTIE!!" _

_She forced the door open, more smoke billowing into her face. She ran inside, her eyes shut tight, and felt the heat from a fire that wasn't in the hearth. She heard a series of labored coughs. _

_Walking toward the source she found her aunt Kira as pale as ice and just as cold as it. With great effort the five year old rescued her older relative and collapsed near a pond behind the building. _

_-End Flashback- _

"Kira only recovered after being in bed for a month and a half, I fairing only slightly better at one month." Rashelly's voice was bitter with unwanted memories, and Sasori felt the overwhelming urge to comfort her, to which he fought a losing battle. He eventually gave in and rested his hand on hers and giving her a sympathetic glance.

"That was also the only time I remember feeling that Kira was truly scared. She couldn't breathe, and the air had already been humid because it had been in the summer. It scared me to see her like that." Rashelly said, stroking her aunt's sleeping face with one hand and squeezing Sasori's with the other.

"This attempted assignation caused Salbaba to be exiled, and we received news of his death right before Kira fully recovered. But the attempt made stress run high and caused tempers to flare. Suddenly a quarter of the clan was dead because of fights they picked with one another. The death toll kept rising and suddenly, only one quarter of the original clan was left. This made the clan weak. A group of bandits and shinobi-turned-murderers got wind of this, and the winter that Kira and I turned six they attacked. Just past midnight. It was horrible.

_-Flashback- _

"_Come out come out wherever you are." A rough voice taunted from just outside the window. Rashelly pulled the covers over her head. _

"_We're not gonna hurt you." It continued, rounding the small one story building to the window near Kira's bed. Kira pulled the covers off of Rashelly. _

"_Rashelly, honey" she said, pulling out a kunai and ushering her niece to the large closet space at the far corner of the room "stay quiet. Get in the wardrobe and get yourself a spare kimono. Stay in the wardrobe." She whispered, listening to the footsteps outside the window and unsheathing a katana. Rashelly looked at the weapon and gulped. "You are to make no sound and under __**no**__ circumstances are you to come out until I tell you that you can. If I never tell you to come out, expect the worst. But wait until sunrise to come out if I never tell you to." _

_Rashelly obeyed her aunts orders and climbed into the wardrobe, quietly closing the door. _

_Kira adjusted her grip on the katana, prepared to die at six years of age. The man banged on the door. _

"_Let me in little girly, I've come to play." He rasped, jingling the door handle._

"_Oh, if you want to play then come right on in." Kira said, imitating a three year olds voice. From her vantage point in the wardrobe Rashelly saw, through a crack between two doors, the door swing open to reveal a nimble man with bad teeth. _

_Kira hid the katana behind her back and smiled a toothy grin at the bandit. "Hi." She said childishly. _

"_Hey little girly." The bandit said advancing on Kira. "Wanna do something fun?" _

"_No." Kira replied, thrusting the katana into the man's chest "And don't call me 'little girly'." _

_The man gaped at Kira and looked down at the breast of his shirt and wach blood gush out of the wound. He fell forward, dead. _

_Kira gaped at the man, turning green in the face. She threw up into a wastepaper basket near the corpse. She shakily pulled out the katana and wiped the blood off with her bed sheets, sheathing it once she was finished. _

_Rashelly could take it no longer as Kira fell to her knees. She burst from the wardrobe sobbing and ran to her aunt, whose face was as pale as it had been when she had been suffocating from smoke when she was five. _

"_Rashelly, we have to get to Mom and onee-chan." She said, her voice steady as she stood back up. Rashelly nodded and the two ran outside to see Alaakume and Akana struck down into a pool of blood. A gigantic man with a short sword laughed in mirth as he looked into the life-less eyes of the two women. _

_Kira's rage boiled over. Handing a few kunai to Rashelly should she need them Kira attacked the man, slicing his head off and flinging it has far as her six year old body would allow. She collapsed into the pool of her mother's blood and didn't even flinch as another bandit stabbed her in the back. _

_Rashelly threw a kunai at the man with deadly accuracy and the man fell to the side, as dead as Alaakume and Akana. Rashelly ran up to her aunt and picked her up by the arms and ran. _

_-End Flashback- _

"That night was so scary. I ran with stamina I didn't know I had until I got to the gates of Sunnakagure, where I met the Kazekage, Gaara's father. Gaara was three years old at the time, and the late Kazekage got us a place to live and jobs when we were old enough. Gaara, Kira, and I were close friends growing up. We weren't bothered by his violent tendencies, we had those ourselves." Rashelly sighed.

"We didn't grow up as shinobi, we were taught the basics when we were young and still with our clan. The rest kind of came naturally. Kira taught at the Sunna academy and was secretary for Gaara, and was a decent medic. I worked at Sunna's hospital and maintained a position with Sunna's ANBU. After we got away from our clan we lead pretty boring lives. Until now.

"Well, I'm done. And tired. I hate thinking about my history." Rashelly yawned.

"You told us your background, not how the bloodline works." Sasori stated, tilting is head slightly.

"And that's where you're wrong. Every bloodline has a history. Every history presents itself in the memories of the survivors. I've just shared the collective bloodline of my aunt and myself. For how it works, ask Kira. I may be the better medic, but she understands the inner workings of the bloodline and all that crap." Rashelly said, yawning again.

Without invitation she rested herself against Sasori and prepared to sleep.

"Wait, un." Deidara said, thinking about all the bloodlines he knew of. "What's your clan's name?"

"Kangocho."

* * *

**Kangocho is the Japanese word for the chief of nurses in the army. You'll find out how this relates to everything else in the next chapter : P** **Hope you liked! Review please : 3 Happy Mother's day!!**


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